Who wouldn’t like to take their sweetie
to France, the land of romance and wine, for Valentine’s Day?
And what’s more romantic than a cruise down the Loire, replete
with chateaux and vineyards? Of course, a trip like that isn’t
cheap. The wines of the Loire Valley, on the other hand, are a great
value, largely underappreciated and encompassing a broad range of
styles: red, white, sparkling, and dessert. The best wine appellations
of the river often seem to appear in pairs – couples gazing
at each other across the river. Here’s a case worth of wines
to choose from for Valentine’s Day – call it a cruise
on wine instead of water.

Sancerre and
Pouilly-Fumé

The Loire is France’s longest river and
begins at the center of France, winding its way to the Atlantic.
The first major vineyards of your cruise are relatively well-known
in the U.S.: the famous Sauvignon Blancs of Pouilly
Fumé and Sancerre. Lucien
Crochet is one of my favorite Sancerre producers; they
are based in the area’s smallest commune, Bue, and make several
different bottlings of Sancerre and Sancerre Rouge (the latter based
on Pinot Noir). Look for the Lucien
Crochet “La Croix Du Roy” 2002 Sancerre; it
shows a refined, classic Sancerre nose of grass, citrus, and stone,
with the latter dominating the finish. It’s elegant, medium-bodied,
and refreshing.

If, given February’s cool weather, you’d
like a richer white, go to the other bank of the river and uncork
one of Didier Dagueneau’s wines. Dagueneau
himself looks more like a French-Canadian lumberjack than a French
winemaker; he relentlessly prunes his vines to reduce yields and
concentrate flavors, but lets his own mane of red hair and beard
grow quite freely. He farms his vines biodynamically – organically
with a healthy dose of spirituality and even astrology thrown in.
Biodynamic techniques are becoming more and more popular everywhere
and have proven capable of making world-class wines.

Biodynamics is not the only unusual technique
in Dagueneau’s stable. The most obvious difference when you
taste his wines is that he often ferments or ages his wines in new
French oak, a rare practice for French Sauvignon Blanc north of
Bordeaux. Check out the creamy Pouilly-Fumé
Pur Sang 2002; it’s fermented in oak but not barrel-aged,
so it’s a bit fruitier than its sister wine, the Cuvée
Silex. Look for peach and melon aromas complemented by
some stone, spice, and smoke. The finish goes on forever.

Proceed down the river past Orleans, the city
Joan of Arc rescued from the English in 1429, and on to Tours. The
city itself has a reputation for being rather staid and starchy;
whether you agree or not, there is definitely romance and style
to be found in the surrounding vineyards. The wines of Vouvray
and its opposite, Montlouis, are made from Chenin
Blanc in a daunting range of styles from lusciously sweet to bone-dry.
This is a cool climate, with varied weather from year to year; winemakers
here moreso than in other regions have to take what the vintage
gives them and then make the wines that best suit each individual
harvest.

In Vouvray, Philippe Foreau is the third generation
of his family to make wine at Domaine
du Clos Naudin; I find his sweet wines particularly notable
for their rich, spicy flavors. Unlike many producers, Foreau makes
an effort to give his wines a good deal of bottle age before releasing
them. Storing wine for several years can drive up a winemaker’s
expenses, but somehow his prices remain comparable to those of his
peers, and there’s a peace of mind that comes from knowing
that a winery is selling its wine when it’s ready, not just
when they need to make room in their cellar. There are several vintages
from the 90s currently available, including a fantastic Reserve
from 1995. I particularly like the 1999; while
generally regarded as a difficult vintage for sweet wines in Vouvray,
he made 500 cases and the wine shows lots of spicy fruitcake and
honey aromas, touches of apple, and a clean, focused finish. As
it approaches its tenth birthday, it has unwound enough to reveal
the kind of complexity that makes Vouvray’s dessert wines
so dynamic.

Montlouis wines tend to get obscured by the long
shadow cast by Vouvray – some feel that the latter tends to
be overrated, while Montlouis wines aren’t given the credit
they’re due. Domaine Deletang is one of the
easiest Montlouis producers to find in the U.S. If you want to compare
dessert wines between the two appellations, look for the excellentDeletang Montlouis Grande Reserve 1997; from the
same vintage the “Les Petits
Boulay” bottling is a more affordable, refreshing,
dry white (but still Chenin Blanc). It comes from a site dominated
by limestone and clay soils instead of the tufa soils that characterize
much of the region (tufa is chalk which has been boiled by volcanic
action). The wine shows this difference in its fruitier, more floral
aromas: lots of tangerine, lime and white flowers dominate the nose
and palate.

On the other side of Tours you come to the first
major red wine areas of the Loire Valley, Chinon
and Bourgueil (with its sub-appellation St.-Nicolas-de-Borgueil).
The primary grape grown here is Cabernet Franc, but Cabernet Sauvignon
is becoming more popular, even though it can ripen less well in
the cool climate. Yannick Amirault
has expanded from the vineyards he inherited from his father and
now owns property in both of the Borgueil appellations. His Bourgueil
“Les Quartiers” 2002 offers up the flavors
of ripe Cabernet Franc, untouched by new oak. Surprising meaty,
funky aromas are topped off by black raspberry and cassis; on the
palate, the non-fruit aromas transform into touches of mushroom
and spice. This wine is fuller and less angular than many cool-climate
reds, with a round mouthfeel and moderate, firm tannins.

In Chinon,Charles
Joguet has had similar success in creating richer reds
than has been usual along the Loire. The Clos del La Dioterie
2001 is a great example: the site’s 80-year-old vines
have given the wine lots of black cherry, savory herbs, and spice;
medium-bodied, this one could profit from some time in the cellar
but already packs a lot of interest now. Buy a case and open a bottle
each Valentine’s Day down the road.

More reds await downriver in the “lonely”
appellation Saumur-Champigny, extending south from
the town of Saumur and its white-stone castle. Here Cabernet Franc
was usually fermented as a rosé wine until the 1960s, when
winemakers started producing more and more reds. If you can find
any reserve bottlings from the 2000 vintage, they’re definitely
worth picking up, especially the Château
du Hureau Grande Cuvée or Domaines
des Roches Neuves “La Marginale.” The latter’s
“Terres Chaudes”
is an old-vine cuvée and somewhat more available. What makes
all three wines special is ripeness; the red fruits – sour
cranberry, strawberry – and vegetal qualities that can be
common in the Loire’s reds have instead deepened into blackberry
and cassis; in the “Terres Chaudes” the fruitiness is
rounded out by light, toasty touches of oak from aging in one-year-old
barrels.

Since it would be a shame to leave Saumur-Champigny
alone on Valentine’s Day, this is a good time to mention the
Loire Valley’s sparkling wines. Sold under a number of appellations
– Saumur Brut being one of them – these
wines offer great value compared to the famous names of Champagne.
Varietal regulations are loose; some producers use 100% Chenin Blanc
or Cabernet Franc, while many blend these with other regional grapes
like Grolleau and Chardonnay. Albert Gratien founded the Gratien
& Meyer company in the Loire Valley in 1864, at the same time
he began establishing himself in Champagne. The Gratien
& Meyer Saumur Brut Cuvée Flamme Rosé NV
is a blend of three grapes; medium-bodied and off-dry, its raspberry
base supports refreshing floral touches. While it lacks the depth
and complexity of Gratien’s non-vintage Brut
Champagne, it is also about half the price.

As you pass by the city of Angers, white stone
buildings turn instead to black slate, but the wines shortly turn
white again. North of the river lies Savenniéres,
home of high-intensity, dry-as-the-Sahara Chenin Blanc. Nicolas
Joly is the region’s best-known name, as well as
being the world’s most outspoken voice for biodynamic viticulture
and winemaking. His most famous wines come from Savenniéres’
pair of single-vineyard designations: Coulée de Serrant,
of which he is the sole owner, and Roche-Aux-Moines.
Both wines are excellent, but given their small production and high
demand, fairly pricey. When first opened, the 2002 Coulée
de Serrant is tight and concentrated, with notes of spring
flowers, ginger, and citrus; let it breath for at least a day to
get more out of it, or buy it as a Valentine gift and plan on cellaring
it for several years. There’s an incredible amount of complexity
waiting in this wine for those with the patience and the pocket
book.

For more immediate and affordable pleasures, Domaine
des Baumard’s single-vineyard Clos du Papillon
2000 is a great example of what Savenniéres can
do. It’s an extremely focused wine, with laser-beam acidity
and aromas of lemon curd, honey, and chalk. On the palate the minerality
takes over and wraps around the acidity for a long finish. This
wine is ready to drink, but, like most Savenniéres, has the
backbone to age gracefully for several years.

Opposite Savenniéres lies Coteaux
du Layon, and its two sub-appellations Quarts-de-Chaume
and, set farther back from the river, Bonnezeaux:
all are well-known for their Chenin Blanc-based dessert wines. The
minimum sugar ripeness allowed at harvest in Bonnezeaux is quite
high (higher than in Sauternes, in fact), and this means the wines
tend to be fuller-bodied and a bit sweeter than wines from elsewhere
in the Coteaux du Layon. It’s also not too hard to find slightly
older vintages; the 2002s are the most recent release, but some
retailers are still offering wines from the mid-90s as well. Track
down the René Renou “Les
Melleresses” Bonnezeaux 1996 for a classic example
of Loire Valley dessert wine. Rich tropical fruit, especially pineapple,
has faded with age to take a backseat to marzipan, butterscotch,
and figs. Despite the honeyed sweetness it finishes cleanly because
of well-balanced acidity.

You’ve almost reached the Atlantic, and
there’s one more major wine ahead: Muscadet.
It may lack a partner appellation, but it brings its own romance
as the favored wine pairing for aphrodisiacal oysters. And while
fresh oysters themselves may get pricey, Muscadet is always affordable.

Guy Bossard at Domaine
l’Ecu makes a good bookend to a cruise that began
with Pouilly Fumé’s Didier Dagueneau and passed by
Nicolas Joly – a third biodynamic producer at the mouth of
the Loire (These three are by-no-means the only people making biodynamic
wines in the Loire Valley; even the famous, long-established winery
Domaine Huet adapted their vineyards to biodynamic
farming in the early 90s). Domaine l’Ecu takes making Muscadet
more seriously than many producers; of particular interest is their
series of wines celebrating the region’s terroir: Gneiss,
Orthogneiss, and Granit. Each is made from grapes grown on the named
soil type. The 2002 Orthogneiss Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine
Sur Lie layers wet stone, white flowers, and some surprising
spiciness in a rich wine that’s still elegant and clean.

Loire Valley wines may not earn you as many
points this Valentine’s Day as a real cruise down the river
itself, but they still offer up some wonderful experiences to enjoy
at home. And since many of them are great values, you can enjoy
them and put away your savings toward taking your trip later (perhaps
after the dollar goes up again). On the other hand, there’s
also chocolates, flowers…